Mobius Monthly Newsletter

May 2018

Welcome to the May newsletter, our curated listing of emerging thought leadership in the field of transformational leadership and organizational change. This month we spotlight the discipline of somatics and embodiment which is critical for transformational capacities such as emotional attunement, intuition and field coherence.

We select two pieces to explain what we mean by somatics, and how working with and through the body deepens our capacity for creating sustainable change in our organizations: a short but powerful video introduction by somatics pioneer Richard Strozzi-Heckler, and an interview with Next Practice Faculty member and Mobius Somatics expert Jennifer Cohen. (Jen leads the Advanced Coaching and Somatics learning track at this year’s October Gathering.)

We are also delighted to share an editorial published earlier this month in Forbes from Mobius Chief Thought Leader, Erica Ariel Fox.

Finally, we are hugely proud to share with you the new book by Mobius Senior Expert Priya Parker. The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters offers cutting edge thinking on creating rich contexts for transformation and is a must read for transformational facilitators, team leaders, and mediators.We are delighted that Priya joins us at this year’s Gathering to share her insights on a topic so fundamental to the work we do.

The Next Practice Institute is the professional development arm of Mobius Executive Leadership. Our Annual Gathering is a week-long immersive for leadership coaches, facilitators, other transformational practitioners, and business executives leading change and other human capital initiatives. In addition to the wealth of workshops, keynotes, and opportunities for personal healing work, this is a wonderful opportunity to join a rich community of practice.More information about this year’s program is available here. We encourage you to register soon, remaining spaces are fast filling.

Descartes’ claim “I think therefore I am” is a hallmark of the Scientific Revolution – a moment when the mind was elevated above and split from the body.

What are the central ideas underpinning a somatic approach to leadership development? How exactly do we embody the future we want to achieve? What is the significance of limbic regulation and what do we need to know about the nervous system as leaders and coaches? In this interview with Mobius Transformational Faculty member Jennifer Cohen, she answers these questions and introduces us to the world of somatics and embodiment. Jennifer is a Master Coach certified by the Strozzi Institute. She leads the week-long Advanced Coaching and Somatics training at the Next Practice Institute.

“We are what we repeatedly do.” —Aristotle. “You are what you practice” —Strozzi Heckler

Over forty years ago Richard Strozzi Heckler was invited to teach meditation and aikido techniques to the US military special forces. The experience led him to develop his pioneering methodology for embodied leadership. Strozzi Somatics works with an individual’s or an organization’s defining values to combine conceptual or purely cognitive understanding with physical activity. The intention is to produce an increase in behavioral traits in accordance with our expressed values. Many of these practices are based on aikido principles. In this six-minute video, Richard argues an increase in violence toward ourselves, others, and the natural environment stems from being disconnected “below the chin” and that the solution is to re-embody ourselves. Richard argues an increase in violence toward ourselves, others, and the natural environment stems from being disconnected “below the chin” and that the solution is to re-embody ourselves.

That said, comedian Michelle Wolf’s now infamous roasting of Washington “offers us the enormous gift of sitting up, paying attention, and taking action. We have an opportunity right now to re-establish shared norms of what we consider profane. We can agree that name-calling of national and international leaders is off-limits. We can agree that it’s not okay for the government to tell us what’s true and what’s fake.” Click here to read Mobius President Erica Ariel Fox’s editorial in Forbes earlier this month.

Priya joins us this year at the Next Practice Institute Annual Gathering to share the lessons from her inspiring work and research. Her new book is an engaging tour through human gatherings. The many forms they take, and how to create events – from conferences to dinner parties and workplace meetings, that fulfill our deepest needs and allow us to collectively realize our most visionary and enlightened goals. Within our field of transformational leadership, one of the most important aspects of our craft is being able to create psychologically safe, inclusive and elevated containers for discussion, learning, mediation, and reconciliation ...as well as gatherings for dialogue, collective intelligence, and co-creativity. This capacity is at the heart of our ability to generate transformational fields of growth and healing ... which is the very core of Mobius work. Priya's joyful yet scholarly work sparks the imagination and enables us to extract wisdom from other settings to cross-fertilize our own thinking about our work as practitioners.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Please visit our website for the calendar of upcoming learning events and other professional development opportunities. To register for the Next Practice Institute Annual Gathering and to learn more about it, visit 2018 Annual Gathering.

Please contact our editor, Nathalie Hourihan, if you’d like to suggest a topic or materials for future editions of the newsletter.